


Young Gods

by originxlshipping (MyNeverEndingDistrust)



Series: Fics Inspired by Songs [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - Real World, But not really in it., M/M, Other Characters Are Mentioned, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6456073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyNeverEndingDistrust/pseuds/originxlshipping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life Lessons:</p><p>You can't always be the greatest.<br/>Things won't happen if you don't make them.<br/>Love is a powerful thing.<br/>Sometimes you gotta get away.<br/>You aren't always what people say you are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Young Gods

**Author's Note:**

> That summary is shit lol if you clicked this fic despite it thank you
> 
> Okay so this little series (or gonna-be series, since this is the only one rn) spawned from the fact that I always get ideas for fandom amvs to songs but I have no artistic talent, so I may as well put the idea somewhere huh? That, and I haven't written anything in ages and I'm bored. So yeah.
> 
> This song is Young God by Halsey. It always reminded me of Gold and Red because of how... idk protagonist-y they are. They're always on the hunt for adventure and stuff, and that's where their stories come from.
> 
> I got around to thinking, though, what would they do if they didn't live in a world of magic and adventure? What if they didn't always have the chance to prove to others and themselves that they're heroes? What if they have all those insecurities -what if Gold still feels useless and gets told he's immature, and what if Red still fears failure and loss- but they lived in the shitty real world where if you're bad at something, you're bad at it and if you thirst for adventure, too fucking bad you have to go to school and apply for jobs over and over again? Doesn't sound like their type of life, right? So yeah this fic was born.
> 
> Also like the tag says, this fic does feature some discussion of self-harm because I felt it would be fitting to the real life versions of these characters. I'm not sure if I could be considered major or not bUT! Please turn back if that sort of thing will trigger or upset you in any way, I don't want to hurt anybody so please please be cautious!!!
> 
> God I'm nervous now  
> I hope none of this is too ooc  
> I fucking hate writing fanfic sometimes, you know? Well, I enjoy writing it but posting it is always a different matter aghghh  
> But I spent my whole weekend on this fic (since my WiFi was down) so I might as well fuckin post it
> 
> Also I made Gold and Red the same age bc when you think about it a three year age gap is kinda creepy for teenagers so...  
> You: But Ethan! If you make them the same age, according to their canon birthdays, Gold would be older than Red! But you constantly refer to him as the younger one!  
> Me: *puts my entire hand over your face* shhhhhhHHHHHH. I know. Shh
> 
> Okay maybe because it's fuckin late, but I have nothing else to say. Lyrics for the song are in the fic but give the actual song a listen if you wanna kinda maybe see the mood I tried (and fucking failed) to set in the fic. 
> 
> Enjoy

_He said, “oh, baby girl, you know we’re gonna be legends. I’m the king and you’re the queen and we will stumble through Heaven. If there’s a light at the end, it’s just the sun in your eyes. I know you want to go to Heaven, but you’re human tonight.”_  
-

They met eight years ago, when Red was ten, on a sunny day that he had decided to use to go down to the creek behind his house. 

He doesn’t remember it all too well, but he remembers when the boys came out of nowhere and threatened to throw him into the water. He remembers shouting in vexation, being outnumbered and scared and the cool, clear depths looking more like a threat than an enticement.

However, he would very much like to point out that he does _not_ remember being half as helpless and needy as Gold makes him out to be in _his_ memory of the events. 

In fact, when Gold showed up, yelling and brandishing his fists like weapons, they fought together. It was like they’d known each other all their lives; they moved with one another like trained dancers, like water flowing atop, around, within itself. All the while the sun shone down like a spotlight over their heads, filling them top to bottom with a warmth as strong as its own.

When the fight ended and the attacking boys fled cursing and grumbling, Gold dropped himself into the grass by the creek’s bank and just sighed loudly and exaggeratedly. Red walked up and stood over him with a youthful indignance beginning to well up in his system. 

“Who’re you?” He demanded, wanting to unmask the identity of his so-called saviour, the boy who came even though no one called for him.

Gold snorted resentfully, squinting up at Red in the bright sunlight. It was like neither of them felt the connection, competition barring anything real for the time being. “I’m the guy that just saved your ass.” His expression twisted into a smirk, causing irritation to bring heat to Red’s already flushed face. “We make a pretty good team,” he snickered, laying back in the wet grass and crossing his legs. “Call me if you ever need me to rescue you again.”

“Rescue?” Red yelped, and Gold just nodded up at him like he’d asked the most obvious question ever. “I was doing just fine on my own,” the older boy scoffed, although he was probably lying about that fact. Gold seemed to sense that, giving Red a skeptical look.

“Right. And I’m a six year old girl with a beach house in Idaho.”

Gold sat up lazily and they spent a long time idly glaring at one another. Until Gold finally got fidgety and impatient and broke eye contact with a scoff.

“Hey, but we could really do great things together,” he said offhandedly, completely taking Red by surprise with the change in his attitude. “My name’s Gold. I’m from an old town a ways back. Who are you?”

Red felt like a lever had been triggered in his body and he couldn’t help a friendly smile. Gold caught the look and smirked like he’d somehow known he could turn Red’s mind. 

“My name’s Red! I’m from right here in Pallet!” He puffed out his chest and crossed his arms over it. “I’m a bit of a local celebrity in these parts.”

Gold snickered. “Yeah, I could see that.” Red shot him a halfhearted glare.

Gold stood up, brushed off his clothes. Red’s heart flickered with a weird kind of anticipation, waiting for the strange boy to say something, waiting for him to talk more about why he’d come here and why he’d even bothered to help. 

Gold suddenly grabbed Red’s wrist and dragged him sharply to the water. Red yelped in surprise, and that only made Gold tug harder.

“Quit it!”

“You were coming to the water, right?” Gold stopped pulling for a second, swinging Red directly onto the edge of the shore. Red nodded confusedly simply because it was prompted, and for some reason this made Gold leer at him with the most devious smile Red had ever seen. Words started coming to his head but none would actually make it out of his mouth.

“Hope you don’t have your phone in your pocket!” Gold laughed, and then in one quick movement both of them were falling into the creek’s lukewarm shallows.

Red yelled in alarm, pushing himself deeper into the water, and all the while Gold laughed and splashed in the muddy tide.

“Who do you think you are?” Red yelled, only semi joking as he finally stood up near the middle of the stream, spluttering and pretending that wringing out his clothes would make a difference as the water lapped around his knees. “You know, this is exactly what you _stopped_ those other boys from doing to me, ya dummy.”

“Truth be told I kinda just wanted to do it to you myself,” Gold admits, shrugging nonchalantly. Red bristled, but he’d planned to dip in the creek anyhow, so he resentfully kicked around in the water for a bit. 

Gold seemed to grow bored quickly and he stood up and sloshed through the creek water to stand on his tiptoes over Red and cast a heavy shadow. “I like you,” he said decisively, propping one hand on his hip and reaching the other out for Red to take.

Red looked at the boy’s hand, then his face, and then back at his hand. “You what?” He asked dumbly. Gold sighed overstatedly and lightly kicked some water at Red.

“Jeez, I love to pick the dumb ones, don’t I?” He asked himself jokingly. Red glared at him, hoping to communicate his amusement through the look without even knowing that this was what he wanted. Gold reached over purposefully and grabbed Red’s wrist.

“C’mon,” he said, and Red took a couple of heavy steps, irritatingly sopping wet and weighed down by the water in his clothes. He yanked his wrist back from Gold, not about to be lead around. “I just moved here, ya know? Let’s go exploring!”

“You just moved here?”

“Uh, yeah. No offense to my hometown but it got kinda boring. Where are you supposed to find adventure in a town like New Bark where everyone knows your name?”

Red didn’t really have the heart to tell him that Pallet was like that, too. There wasn’t much adventure to be had in this town. Starry-eyed people like Gold would never last here. Red was barely lasting, himself. He constantly found places away from his home to visit, often ran off to be in new places when the people here and the creek here and the homey feeling here got stifling.

Red looked down at the water separating he and the other boy.

“We moved here to change it up. To make me happy. Mom got a new job, I got a new friend.”

Red glanced up at Gold, a little alarmed. Then a smile slowly wrapped its hands around him and he could hardly hold it back. Gold just side-eyed him and scoffed. 

“Might have to trade you in for a newer model, though. You’re kind of a geek.”

Red abruptly pushed Gold back into the creek, snickering. When Gold broke the surface again, gasping, Red could barely contain his laughter, and the other boy splashed him good-naturedly and huffed.

“Fine!” He yelled, shaking out his hair. “Just for that, you have to buy me lunch!”

Red took a few laboured steps through the water. “You’ll have to catch me first!” Gold shot after him immediately, so he sped away through the creek as fast as he could, never bothering to slow down and notice the current pulling him the other way, never stopping for the sun’s heat bearing down on his head. 

“We’re leaving Pallet,” he warned Gold just as they approached the town’s border, the place where the creek curved west and widened into a pond. 

Gold passed him, leaping up onto the shoreline and turning back. He jogged impatiently in place, shedding droplets of water everywhere and waiting for Red to reach him.

“Good.” Was all he said before he punched Red affectionately in the shoulder and they both took off speeding down the quiet country road.

**

 _And I’ve been sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool for a while now, drowning my thoughts out with the sounds._  
-

When they were fourteen, they figured something out about themselves on a quiet back hill that they rode their bikes all the way to the top of. Gold was itching to ride back down, with the wind whipping against his body begging him to slow up and the brush at the hill’s base threatening to ruin his ride. But Red figured that if they used up all of the energy to get up here, they may as well wait for a moment before they have to go back.

The night sky felt like a reward to him. It’s close and the stars are bright and for a while he wasn’t in his hometown with his school and his parents and his world chained up by everyday tensions. No, for once he worked hard and he got something from it, and damned if he’s not going to take a moment to bathe in the inky blackness and take in the clustered stars.

“Hey, Red,” Gold said tenaciously, and Red flicked a glance his way to let on that he was listening, “can I try something?”

“As long as you don’t start down the hill without me,” he warned good-naturedly.

“Please,” Gold scoffed, “I wouldn’t ask your permission for that.” Red was still looking at the sky, but he vaguely saw Gold climb over his abandoned bicycle and edge closer to him. 

There was a stifling, fuzzy silence for a second as Gold appeared to be resettling himself into his body.

“Hey,” he said again, and Red really looked over to him this time, concerned about his apparent discomfort. It only took a second for Gold to pull Red in and kiss him, sending immediate shocks of broken chills running through the older boy’s entire body. 

Gold was… Gold’s very being was an adventure in itself, and in some part of Red’s mind the fog dispersed, some of his thirst for an experience faded away. The separated mist settled over the remainder of his thoughts and in those slow seconds he found himself pulling Gold closer to him and letting the younger boy take over all of his senses. Anything… _anything_ he’d been feeling dripped like sand through an hourglass out of his body.

They didn’t really pull apart, as Red hadn’t yet regained control of his body and couldn’t let go of Gold’s shirt. Gold’s hands stayed where they were as well, one wrapped around Red’s neck and the other splayed across his chest. It wasn’t anything they could describe, or anything they’d want to.

But Red’s brain faded back into his consciousness all of a sudden and he found his shoulders tensing and his body closing off and for some reason something was telling him that that wasn’t right. But Gold, so damn bright even in the darkness, was rapidly smothering that part of him without doing a thing.

The brunet snickered, bracing himself against Red. “So?” He asked. Red’s words tripped over themselves and he found that there was not one thing that came to his mind that he actually wanted to say. All his thoughts met each other at the doorway but none really had space to come out.

“Ahh,” Gold breathed like he discovered something, and he smirked up at Red, successfully stopping all the processes in Red’s brain once again. It would take ages to get those back up and running. “You think too damn much,” he laughed, leaning up to kiss Red again.

He’d be lying if he said he didn’t love the stupid feeling of losing all of his worries, just like this.

**

 _But do you feel like a young God? You know the two of us are just young gods, and we'll be flying through the streets with the people underneath, and they're running, running, running-- But do you feel like a young God? You know the two of us are just young gods, and we'll be flying through the streets with the people underneath, and they're running, running, running again…_ -

At the end of tenth grade, Gold maliciously burned all of his old assignments. The tests he failed came first, the ones with frowny faces and words illustrating his wasted potential, all things that Gold found fake and stupid. Every time he’d throw a paper into the fire alone, he’d comment on how these people didn’t know him. They didn’t know what he had, who he was, what he was capable of or what he wanted to become.

He said that all they saw was what he wanted them to see, and that’s why he always did so badly. He said that they just didn’t like him, they just couldn’t see him. Who are they to judge his worth from a paper that asks nothing of who he is?

The whole time, both of them stared out over the fire, onto the horizon lines leading into the dimly lit distance. Gold constantly seemed one step away from reaching out to touch it, uncaring of whether the fire was in his way. 

Red could see the tears glistening in Gold’s eyes and the anger with which he wiped them before they could even fall. Gold didn’t want to see his own wasted potential or his weakness. He flung the old papers into the fire with a frustrated hiss that barely made it through his teeth. 

They didn’t belong here, and they never have. Their hearts belonged to open roads and adventure, not jobs, not schools, not people telling them who to be. 

Red smiled sadly at the fire. Weren’t they just stupid kids? Wouldn’t they figure it out when they got older? Wouldn’t Red one day stop feeling powerless and robbed every time things don’t go his way, every time he got corrected, every time he couldn’t help someone?

He tensed nervously as he felt shitty feelings come back at him, as he retreated back into his own thoughts and once again left Gold alone like the horrible person that he was. The last assignment, a bristol board project on the history of someplace Gold wanted to visit, made the fire blaze bright and hot against their faces, but they didn’t step back. It was as though maybe if they stood close enough, the fire would take them away.

“I’m going to fucking run away,” Gold gritted out through his teeth, and Red glanced over at him, sort of hoping that he really did want that, that he was really going to free them. Red felt like he had too many commitments in Pallet to suggest running away and abandoning them all, but Gold was the one that made him feel worth the most and he would never leave him on his own.

“One day, we’re gonna take this whole world by storm. Show them that we don’t need them telling us what to do. I don’t need snotty-nosed know-it-all adults telling me that all I’m worth is a janitor. I don’t need their fucking tests or their goddamn life! I wanna do this my way!”

Somehow through the anger and passion, the tears in Gold’s eyes finally found it in them to fall. Much faster than Gold could ever wipe them away.

“F-fuck,” Gold whimpered, swiping his hands roughly across his face. Red automatically found himself bringing Gold close and holding him tightly. And all he feared in that moment was Gold saying ‘I don’t need this,’ or ‘you won’t have to come with me.’ 

“They’re all going to fucking see.” Gold snarled lowly. “We’re not useless, we’re not failures. We’re stronger than they could ever imagine.”

**

 _He said, “oh, baby girl, don’t get caught on my edges, I’m the king of everything and oh, my tongue is a weapon. There’s a light in the crack that’s separating your thighs and if you want to go to Heaven you should fuck me tonight.”_  
-

They’re eighteen now, and they never did run away. It feels like they’re waiting for the right time, but neither of them really know when that’ll be. Red really wants it to be soon. It burns him up, how badly he wants to leave, how much it’d hurt his mother, and Blue, and Green, and Yellow if he did. How could he ever think about leaving them?

But how could he ever stay here, taunted by the piles of assignments he’s underachieved on, of people he’s let down, of jobs he’s not gotten, of schools he’s not gotten into, of things he’s not succeeded at? None of that would matter on the open road. He thinks about leaving here way more often than he should.

Red found Gold cutting himself nearly five months ago. He was doing it across his stomach, where no one would see and no one would ask him about it and no one would call him weak for it. He said he did it because it put him in control. He said he did it because one day maybe he’d work up the courage to cut far too deeply and stop wasting everyone’s time on him. He said he did it because it was like running away, but from _everything_ , no more acting like he was fine with being labeled, and no more feeling fragile for it.

“And I wouldn’t be so much of a burden on you,” he’d spat bitterly, “you wouldn’t need to put up with me any longer.”

Red didn’t know he had so much built-up frustration in him until he yelled at Gold. And he yelled for an uncountable amount of time. Because Gold meant so much to him. Because Gold was one of the strongest people he’d ever met. Because he loved Gold so much that he could never imagine being without him. Because they’d been through so much together and they had to live to see more. The whole world. Even if this place was their home, they didn’t have to feel obligated to stay.

It was enough to make Gold wrap the blade in paper and toss it into the bin. And Red promised him that this would be over soon. He’d promised that they would be out of here one day.

He decides in the early morning after a night that he’d stayed over at Gold’s house pretending to look for universities when they were really just making dumb comments on terrible TV movies until four in the morning.

“Hey,” Red greets Gold nervously. The younger boy is standing shirtless in the bathroom mirror and had been running his fingers over his scars. Red’s brow furrows as Gold flinches and turns to him.

“Hey,” he responds offhandedly. “What’s up?”

“What were you doing?” Red asks curiously, not feeling suspicious or anything thanks to the significant lack of the sight of blood or a blade. Gold scoffs, rolling his eyes, and turns back to the mirror.

“I was going to try to split some open,” he says, and he says it so casually that Red almost doesn’t understand the vicious connotation to his words, “‘cause I got another job offer turned down by some other useless automated email from another dumb company.”

“Gold-”

“But,” he interrupts confidently, shooting Red a knowing glance that kind of makes the older boy flush, “I saw how well they were healing, and with summer here now I probably need these scars to disappear, ‘specially if I wanna pick up cute chicks.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and they both laugh. It feels strange for the situation, given what Red had been about to say, given what Gold had said. But it feels right.

Their laughter dies down, with Gold resting his hand on Red’s shoulder and leaning most of his weight against it. “So?” Gold asks, panting lightly and giving Red a smug and curious look. 

“So?” Red asks, confused. Gold rolls his eyes. 

“After all these years, you’re still a forgetful loser.” Red shoves him affectionately, smiling. “What did you want to say, dummy?”

“Ah,” Red breathes, remembering, and then his body does the thing where it tenses up like he’s hiding in a space smaller than his frame. “I was actually wondering if you wanted to run away… like, tonight.”

Gold’s eyes blow wide, a bit of a smile tugging at the very corners of his lips. “Ya mean it?” He breathes, and Red shuffles a little bit as he notices how excited Gold is for this, realises all the time he’s been holding them back from what they said they wanted. But he nods anyway, and he’s determined to truly do it this time, especially after seeing Gold planning to revisit his cuts.

He’s tired of being held back. They both are.

A long, disbelieving silence spans between them, so apparent that it’s almost visible.

Then Gold whoops loudly and excitedly, his whole frame practically exploding with exhilaration. He bounces past Red into his bedroom and flings his closet wide, pulling out his backpack and dumping all of his old schoolwork out of it, kicking the papers and materials against the wall. Red watches, stunned, and then Gold’s mood infects him slowly and he begins to simmer with excitement until it becomes a low flame in his belly.

“I think you wanted to wait until the end of school,” Gold says matter-of-factly, nearly sticking his whole head in his bag to check for remaining pocket garbage. Red blinks curiously. “I think you wanted to graduate. Felt good, didn’t it?” He sends a smug smirk Red’s way, and admittedly, he’s right. In fact, the realisation makes some puzzle pieces fall into place in Red’s head as he nods.

“Why tonight?” Gold asks interestedly, tossing his bag aside and walking up to Red. And simply to avoid letting his brain stall, simply to keep excess words out of his mouth, Red says the first thing that comes to his mind.

“I wanted us to be happy.”

Gold raises his eyebrows in surprise and juts out his bottom lip. “Is that all?”

Red’s hands ball into fists by his sides as he thinks about it. “I think we’re done being cooped up in Pallet. The time for being treated like children is over for us. It’s time to make our own decisions, whether we’re really ‘ready’ to or not.”

He refocuses to find Gold smiling lightly at him, an eyebrow raised. “You’re so serious,” he comments. This makes Red feel a bit sheepish.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

“Well, you’re right. It’s time to show off how great we really are. How great we know we can be.” Gold steps really close to Red, and all of a sudden Red doesn’t recognise the look on Gold’s face; it’s not really an expression he’s seen before. “We’re more than what people say we are, right?” Red nods determinedly, really, truly believing that Gold is right. That there’s something more to the two of them than they can show right now. He doesn’t know what they’re going to do to show it, but he knows that they will.

Gold presses a kiss to the corner of Red’s mouth, startling him a bit. “We should celebrate,” he says strangely, stepping somehow closer to the older boy. “We didn’t celebrate graduation, but I think this is worth it, hm..?”

Red’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. They did celebrate graduation. They went to the prom and the dinner and the afterparty. They were out until five AM.

Gold rolls his eyes for the second time this morning, clearly seeing Red’s dumbfounded expression. “You’re so… cute,” he taunts, and Red blushes nervously, stomach tensing with weird anticipation. Gold’s hands run up his chest as he leans in for a better kiss, running his tongue lightly across Red’s lip. “You’ll see what I mean eventually, then.”

Red shrugs a little bit and slides his hands around Gold’s waist as the younger’s hands thread into his hair. A shudder runs up the older boy’s spine as Gold edges one of his legs between Red’s and pushes even closer to him. Their lips connect again, a little more insistent this time, Gold pressing his tongue into Red’s mouth when he gets the chance. A little bit unused to the way this feels, Red tries his best to imitate what Gold is doing, taking pleasure in the taste of the boy’s mouth.

“Hm,” Gold hums contentedly, pulling away with a trail of saliva dripping from his lip. Red’s face burns at the image, and he can’t help smiling softly at the boy he loves being so painfully endearing. Gold looks pretty proud of himself at the sight of the expression on Red’s face.

Gold leans forward, gently nuzzling against Red’s neck and pressing a kiss to the side of his jaw. And, _oh,_ Red gets it now. Shit. He isn’t prepared for this, he has no idea what to do. An uncomfortable chill swirls around his stomach.

Gold bites down lightly on his neck and all of the worry fades away into an odd, sick burn in his gut. He fails to stifle a moan when Gold does the same thing again, licking lightly at the skin there this time and tugging at the collar of Red’s shirt. Gold grinds his hips against Red’s own, eliciting a whimper from Red as the light friction just barely creates a pleasurable sensation in his stomach.

“You want this, don’t you?” Gold breathes into his ear. “You’re okay with having sex with me?”

And somehow hearing the words for real from Gold’s mouth takes any last bit of hesitation away from Red, and he breathes a shaky “yes” and slides his hands up the younger boy’s sides. He can practically hear Gold smirking at him as he pulls him towards the bed. 

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this,” Gold breathes, mostly to himself. He looks so confident as he slowly presses Red down onto the bed and climbs on top of him, securing his knees on either side of Red’s hips. “If ya wanted to make me happy, we coulda just done this.” 

Red huffs at him. “Well ya coulda said something.”

Gold leans down to him. “Didn’t wanna freak you out. You get pretty freaked out at new things sometimes.”

“Isn’t trying new things sort of our specialty?” Red moves to prop himself up on his elbows, but Gold forcefully pushes him back down. He grinds down against Red, smirking, and makes a satisfied little noise when Red almost involuntarily arcs his back a little bit and tries to access the feeling again.

“Well, I guess this is our new thing today, huh?”

Red looks at his hands placed on Gold's slender hips, tracing his gaze up the boy’s body, over his scars, over his steadily rising and falling chest, to look at his face, slightly flushed and very confident. He smiles without meaning to, so pleased to see happiness and pride on his boy’s face instead of the insecurity they've faced for so long.

“I guess it is,” he says back, surprised at how breathless he is. Gold’s playful smirk widens as he leans down to press a kiss against Red’s collarbone, sliding his hands under the older boy's shirt.

“Then get ready for the adventure of a fucking lifetime,” he purrs, and Red, already tipsy on the feeling of Gold's touch, is sure that he was wrong earlier. He's perfectly ready for this right now.

**

 _And I've been sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool for a while now, drowning my thoughts out with the sounds._  
-

Red feels a little bad for borrowing money from Green to kickstart this trip. She didn't even ask what it was for, she just handed it over with a kind smile and told him playfully to make good use of it. He couldn't resist giving her a hug and promising that he would. He'd call her, and Blue and Yellow too, and explain everything later. 

But even with that promise in his mind, he can't help but feel awful about leaving them. And his mother, even though he hardly ever saw her thanks to her job, would be missing him as soon as she read the note he left. He bites clean through two of his fingernails as he imagines her face when she realises he left. He checks his cell for the umpteenth time that evening, waiting for a text reading “where are you?”

He stares out the train window, trying to relax himself and calm the shuddering under his skin. This was what he wanted. This was what they planned.

They didn't leave on the night they decided to, they left a week later, packing everything they were sure they'd need and anything they could sell along the line. Red mentioned they'd need to settle down somewhere, eventually, and Gold had flapped his hand nonchalantly and said of course that was part of the plan. When they found places they could work where they truly felt fulfilled and a place that they could live that was truly full of sights… then they could live there.

Gold is asleep against his shoulder, all tucked up like a little kid on the train's seat with his mouth hanging slack. Looking at him, Red remembers everything that they said as kids, everything they've done. He practically swells with fondness when he thinks about what kind of experience they'll have together without any rules to hold them down. What kinds of things all of that experience will bring.

Fuck it, he decides, turning to the window once more. If he truly wants to, he can always go back. If he finds that this isn't what's right for him and Gold, then that's their fault and they'll have to fix it. But how will they know if they never do it?

Gold mumbles sleepily and raises his head slowly off of Red's shoulder, blinking around like he doesn't know where he is. Then a smile blossoms across his face and he shakes Red’s arm with a childishly excited noise.

“This is it,” he says, voice still a little thick with sleep, “ya ready?”

Red nods enthusiastically, catching a glimpse of the sunrise over the horizon that they're headed towards. And it's cheezy, but it'll definitely do just fine.

“Born ready.”

**

 _But do you feel like a young God? You know the two of us are just young gods, and we'll be flying through the streets with the people underneath, and they're running, running, running-- But do you feel like a young God? You know the two of us are just young gods, and we'll be flying through the streets with the people underneath, and they're running, running, running again. (And we'll be running, running, running…)_  
-

Red's standing outside a gas station waiting for Gold to come out. He'd gone to the payphone to talk to his mom and his friends, while Gold had gone to the bathroom. Red's charger for his phone broke, so he'd had to tell everyone that he wouldn't be receiving texts for a while.

Their responses to him leaving weren't as harsh as he thought they'd be. His mother mused that it was like he'd gone off to college and as long as this was what he wanted, all she needed was for him to be safe and call often and stay healthy and alive. Green yelled at him for not telling her, and then apologised for yelling and made him promise to call and send pictures and tell her where he was at all times so maybe she could visit. Blue chewed him out for not saying anything to him, and proceeded gave him tonnes of tips on how to make it in the streets, bits of life advice that Red never would have thought of. And Yellow did all of that, making him sincerely promise that he'd be okay.

And he told them all that he loved them and promised them that he would always be in touch, and that he'd keep himself and Gold safe, and that everything was okay. (He may have cried a lot, prompting Gold to make fun of him for the next week.)

The gas station’s door bell jingles and something flashes past Red in a blur, putting him instantly on high alert. Someone grabs his hand and he nearly yells in protest until he hears Gold's voice screaming, “I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up!” So he lets Gold pull him away at top speed, running with him until he pulls them to a stop in a back alley, checking suspiciously for anyone chasing them.

“What was that?” Red demands, clutching his chest. It's hot out wherever they are, and extra physical activity is definitely not recommended.

Gold holds out a pile of bills in one hand and swipes a finger under his nose with the other. “Look what I got,” he boasts.

“Did you steal that?” Red breathes, alarmed, and Gold scoffs irritatedly.

“Yeah, Red, I'd love to go to jail in the middle of Fucking Nowhere Town.” He stuffs the money into the pockets of his shorts and starts pacing easily down the alleyway. “I won it in a bet, but the guy got seriously pissed.”

“A bet?” Red asks dumbfoundedly, trotting to keep up with Gold. “You were only supposed to go to the bathroom!”

“That's… kinda what the bet was on,” Gold says with fake thought in his voice, and Red decides that he doesn't really want to know. “Don't know how you can cheat at a pissing contest, but apparently this guy did.” He leaps up onto a ledge surrounding a building, beckoning for Red to follow him up.

“Now we can afford to catch a bus out of here,” Red dismisses the issue, heaving himself up into the ledge with Gold. “If you wanna.” 

“Nah, I wanna do something fun! It's my birthday tomorrow, ya know.”

“I can't believe time passed so fast,” Red muses cheerily, having known fully well that yes, tomorrow would be Gold’s birthday and that they were nearing the one-month marker of their departure from Pallet. 

_“I'm coming out of my cage. And I've been doing just fine. Gotta gotta be down. Because I want it all.”_ Gold starts singing loudly and obnoxiously, swaying on the ledge's surface to the beat. _”It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this? It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss.”_

Gold swivels around to face Red, grinning, and then jumps backwards off the ledge. Red runs to catch up with him again, and doesn't hesitate this time when the younger boy takes his hand and pulls him out from between the buildings and back onto the main street, no longer singing but for some reason laughing.

This side of the street is a little busier than the dirtpath they'd come from, and Gold drags Red along the curb in the direction of traffic. Red recognises this as the way back to the motel they're staying at, but he knows that Gold's not gonna make it that easy.

“Let's rent a car,” he laughs, slowing his pace, “drive all around this funky little city in the dead of night.”

“Maybe we should get lunch first,” Red offers, and Gold sticks his tongue out at him playfully.

“Let's go get free samples at the food market,” he hisses excitedly, squeezing Red’s hand. “And then after we've tried them all, we switch clothes and hats and do it again!”

“Sounds good to me!”

Gold gives him a slightly surprised look before he whoops in excitement, pumping his fist.

“Master of persuasion,” he compliments himself in a fake awed whisper. Red wants to snark back but he decides to just let Gold have this one.

After lunch, Gold fakes Red out and walks him right past their motel to the body of water out a little ways behind it. They don't even have to say anything to each other before they take off their shirts and jump in together, playfully splashing around in the chilly water.

“God, this feels nice,” Gold sighs, flopping backwards and falling underwater before coming back up again, shaking out his hair like a wet dog. “It's so fucking hot out.” 

“At least it's not winter,” Red points out. It's gonna be harder to keep their temperatures regulated in winter. Gold makes a face that says ‘that’s fair’ before he dips back under the water. 

“Hey, Red?” He asks when he comes up again. 

“Yeah?”

“You don't regret running away, do you?”

Red looks over at him, surprised at the sincere tone in his voice and the matching facial expression. He stalls over his words for the first time in almost a month, even though he knows he wants to say no.

“Do you?” He asks instead.

Gold shakes his head viciously. “No way, no how. I don't have a job, I don't have a home, I don't have a car, and out here, those aren't problems! People see us every day and they don't see our history, or any of our mistakes, they just see us!” His eyes light up and there's no sign of anything but joy on his face.

Red's answer finally comes clear. “I don't regret it either. This,” he gestures around into the wide open space, over the water, over the land, “is all I've ever needed. I don't have to worry about messing up, or about whether or not my life will be ruined by one little mistake. We can always keep moving forward. We'll always have more things to see, more to do, more to… to live!”

Gold grins, and Red smiles back.

Then the younger boy’s expression becomes a smirk, and he splashes Red violently with water.

“Hey!” He splutters.

“You're still such a geek, I love you.” Gold snickers, and even though it sounds like he's kidding, Red can't help his response.

“I love you, too.” He says, and then flushes nervously like he's said something wrong, like it's not been obvious since they were fifteen. Gold gives him a bright look, face reddening, and splashes him again.

“Geek,” he says fondly, swimming close enough to peck Red lightly on the lips.

“Do you think they're okay without us, back home?” Red asks. If Gold got to ask a sincere question, then so does he.

“I think everybody's doing swimmingly, “ Gold says jokingly. “I think they're all probably proud of us. Or jealous.”

“You think so?”

“Pallet is full of old people. They grew up there, cause nobody ever leaves! We left! We ran off to make things better for us and I think everyone who's ever seen us fuck up is eating their hat right now. I think we're the bravest people to ever come from that silly little town, ‘specially after all those jobs we didn't get and school things we didn't ace. Nobody, not even us, thought we were great enough for this, remember?”

Red does remember, very vividly. He doesn't really think either of them will ever forget.

“We sure showed them,” Gold says in a fake accent like a kid in an old cartoon. “We made it,” he adds, more wholeheartedly.

Red smiles at the younger boy, feeling like he's going to overflow with emotion. All he can manage through the backed-up feelings swirling around in his head is to hug Gold tightly, laughing a bit at the boy's startled noise and burying his head in the other's neck when he hugs back.

It takes a strong person to do what they did. A strong, smart, brave person. And they did it. They ran headfirst into the open world just like they did all those years ago when they first met.

They stay in the water till after dark, laughing at silly stories that they just happen to remember from when they were young, simply because they can. 

Because they opened the world up with their bare hands and it's their turn to be in charge. Because it's their world now.

**Author's Note:**

> I hate how the last portion turned out, I fuCKING HATE IT.  
> And I suck shit at endings but hey man it's whatever.
> 
> I don't even actually know the song Gold is singing in the fic but I've seen it on Tumblr and thought it was fitting rip 
> 
> You got any corrections to the characters or questions about my headcanons for me, send them, but please don't bash my goddamn headcanons or interpretations of the characters, I'm trying real hard to stick to my personal writing style and crowd-please at the same time so bear with meeee
> 
> Okay so I was gonna turn that scene up there into a full out smut scene but any time I tried to get further I was like "whooOOO CALM DOWN THERE BUDDY THIS IS STEAMY ENOUGH DON'T YA THINK" so that scene didn't turn out like I planned but it's ok I guess
> 
> Um also in the song, the narrator is Red and the "you/him" the narrator sings about is Gold, if that wasn't clear haha
> 
> I just realised I probably don't have to worry about getting any of the backlash I'm worried about ~~at all, I'm just overreacting and probably being overdramatic haha~~ because I wrote for a rarepair so barely anyone's gonna find it ahahaha
> 
> Ugh why do I leave such rambly notes I'm sorry
> 
> Next fic is probably gonna be OriginalShipping to "Colours" by Halsey so stay tuned I guess
> 
> Also despite the fact that AO3 makes me call a collection of fics a "series," none of these fics in the series are gonna be related at all so ye


End file.
